In future, vehicle-to-vehicle communication (subsequently C2C communication for short) and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (subsequently C2I communication for short) will become ever more significant for controlling vehicles, particularly for driving-safety and driving-assistance systems. C2C communication and C2I communication are subsequently combined using the term C2X communication.
For the control and the driving-safety and driving-assistance systems which use C2X communication to work correctly, it is necessary to have the most precise possible knowledge of the range of C2X communication, that is to say the range of the radio waves, or electromagnetic waves in a different wavelength range, which are used for the communication. The range denotes the maximum distance between transmitter and receiver at which communication between transmitter and receiver is still possible.
In connection with GPS communication, the document US 2005/0137786 A1, which is incorporated by reference, describes the fact that, to improve communication, heavy goods vehicles need to be prohibited by law from traveling on both sides of a car. In addition, in the event of permanent heavy attenuation of the GPS signal on account of travel through a tunnel or in the center of a large city, this can be rectified with the use of driver systems. In addition, the known system has a diagnosis system which verifies whether the system is operating correctly. These proposals for improvement, the underlying problem for which involves insufficient range of communication, address the problems outlined in the preceding paragraph only in part.